# Best and Worst Attack Animations



## Mustardear (May 4, 2010)

Title says it all. Any Generation.

Personally, I like: 

Fire Blast (HG/SS) - all fire attacks look awesome in Gen IV
Megahorn (HG/SS) - my favourite move
Hydro Pump (Gen IV) - looks just how it should
Thunder Wave (Gen IV) - looks much better than Gen III
Tri Attack (Gen I) - the best attack animation ever

My least favourite animations are probably: 

Extremespeed (Gen IV) - it's as though they took the Gen III animation and slowed it down. Why?
Ice Beam (Gen IV) - it seems too thin to be a 95 power attack
Dragon Claw (Gen IV) - Gen III animation was so much cooler.
Follow Me (Gen IV) - when you use it, the hand sort of points to the left i.e. at your second Pokemon.
Drill Peck (Gen IV) - radius seems to wide. Again, better in Gen III
Solarbeam (Gen IV) - if the energy comes down from the sun then why would the Pokemon take in energy to use the attack? Maybe it's just me.
EDIT - Double Hit (Gen IV) - why does it hit four times? I just hate double hit in general. The name just sounds like the biggest cop-out since, well, ever (slight exaggeration) "This move hits twice. What should we call it?"
...Aaand they're all from Gen IV. I guess I like Gen I and II too much to criticise their retro animations and Gen III had really good attack animations.


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## ultraviolet (May 5, 2010)

I actually really like gen III's Quick Attack's animation because it was ... quick... and then gen IV's is like 'move around in a circle and attack' and it makes no sense at all.


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## Togetic (May 5, 2010)

I make a mess in my pants every time someone uses Aura Sphere.

The worst animation is probably U-turn. It goes UPWARDS, not in a U shape. Yes I'm nit-picky.


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## spaekle (May 5, 2010)

GOOD:
- Perish Song in most gens.
- Gen IV Signal Beam. 
- Gen IV Egg Bomb. I just like the explosion.

BAD:

- Return in Gen III is really... questionable-looking.
- ...as is Thrash in Gen IV.
- ...and Water Sport in Gen IV, especially when something like Budew uses it.
- Toxic in Gen I. Why is it raining? 
- Water Gun in Gen III. It just looks like a blob of water is being thrown on the other Pokemon. No 'gun' aspect at all. Doesn't even look like it'd hurt.


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## Wargle (May 7, 2010)

LIEK:
Gen III Tri Attack
Gen IV Roar of Time (Just maybe slow down the start and make the finish more distored timeish)
Gen IV Dragon Pulse
Gen IV Encore
Gen IV Flamthrower
Gen IV Thunder

NO LIEK:
Gen IV Tri Attack
Gen III Ice Beam (Really? Badly drawn crystals in a row?)
Gen IV Ice Beam (Really? That thin)
XD Ice Beam (See Gen IV Ice beam)
Gen IV U-Turn (IT GOES UP!!)
Gen III Bubble/Bubblebeam (SAME ANIMATION!!)
Gen IV Water Gun (A drop of water! IT HURTS SO BAD!!)


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## Chief Zackrai (May 8, 2010)

I like:
the gen. III flamethrower
The Gen. II animations. All Of them. My favorites being surf and hyper beam
The Gen. III Hydro Pump
The Gen. IV Fire Type moves
The Gen. III solarbeam
The Gen. IV water gun, it was finally an actual spray as opposed to droplets
The Gen. IV Signal Beam

I don't like:
The Gen. IV steel wing, its just stupid
Most of the Gen. III animations
The Gen. IV Ice beam

EDIT!: Actually, I didn't like much of Gen. III to begin with, but I'm warming up to it now.


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## shadow_lugia (May 8, 2010)

Actually, I like most Gen. III animations. This was the first game I ever played, and they kind of stuck with me. I didn't like most Gen. IV animations. I didn't like how Fire Blast went around your own Pokemon first, and that the background was all bright. Same for Flamethrower.


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## Vipera Magnifica (May 10, 2010)

I like:
Gen. IV Tri Attack (Very epic)
Gen. I Fire Blast (Still epic)
Gen. IV Extrasensory
Gen. III Fissure

Don't like:
Gen. IV Fly (Looks too much like Sonic the Hedgehog)
Gen. IV Ice Beam (Doesn't even look like it would do much damage)
Gen. IV Wing Attack (Yellow feathers shouldn't come off bats or dragons)


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## M&F (May 10, 2010)

Generation IV's Sky Uppercut... Is a fist doing an Uppercut, and Sky is nonwhere to be seen. Not to mention it's thrown from quite low. I liked it a lot more back in the third generation.


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## nothing to see here (May 30, 2010)

I've always liked the D/P Flash Cannon animation for some reason.  Platinum's was worse, though, and I haven't seen the HG/SS version yet so I have no idea if it's even changed.

Don't like D/P/Pt Ice Beam, though, for basically the same reason as everyone else--it's too skinny-looking.  If it was exactly the same but about two or three times wider, it'd be okay.  Also, Ice Shard and D/P/Pt Extreme Speed both look way too slow to be "always hits first" moves.  Extreme Speed just needs the hitting part to be sped up a bit, but Ice Shard needs to be completely re-done... it'd be better if it was just one bigger shard that went flying off really fast at an angle, with all the "cold mist" effect trailing behind it, or something like that.  Instead of "cold mist+a bunch of small shards build up really slowly, then fly off at average speed" like it is now.

I can't remember too many others that I really like/dislike at the moment, though.

EDIT: About U-Turn... the Japanese name translates to something along the lines of "Somersault" if I remember right.  So the animation isn't really wrong... it's just another one like "Faint Attack" (actually more like a sneak attack) and "Aerial Ace" (based on some sort of samurai slash technique, absolutely nothing to do with flight... I think it's only Flying-type because the original name of the move referenced birds, or something like that)--they're all attacks that were given an English name that doesn't really describe what it actually does.  U-Turn is a bit more accurate than the other two, though, since that at least refers to how the Pokémon attacks, then immediately turns and switches out.  No clue why it's Bug-type, though.


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## RespectTheBlade (May 30, 2010)

Favorites: Thunder(Gen III)
Hyper Beam(Gens III and IV(HGSS)) Gen III looks awesome, and HGSS really  improved Hyper Beam from Platinum.
Perish Song (all Gens it Appeared in)
Aura Sphere (HGSS) Again, another improvement from Platinum
Luster Purge(Both Gens it Appeared in)
Draco Meteor: Goes without explaining

Hate: Assurance:(gen IV) Why does a pat on the back hurt so much?
Metronome: (gen IV) good move, but why can a pokemon who doesn't have fingers learn it?
Judgement: if the move's type changes, why is it always white?
Mist Ball(gen IV) A real letdown from gen III. Also, Looks more like a flying or water attack.


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## EmeraldCityBlues (Jun 12, 2010)

Worst: Any attack that involves the pokemon rotating into some weird position and them ramming itself at the enemy. Also, the new Lick animation. Made extremely creepy by the fact that you can hear a weird "Nyeeuuggh" sound when it's used.
Best: Spacial Rend, 1st gen Thunder, 2nd gen Quick Attack, and Close combat.


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## ZimD (Jun 13, 2010)

good ones:
perish song, under any circumstances
a lot of gen iii ones, including ice beam and blizzard off the top of my head
magical leaf gen iv i always liked
magma storm

shitty ones:
gen iii razor leaf
a lot of gen iv ones, only ones i can think of off the top of my head are assurance and uproar


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## Wargle (Jun 19, 2010)

Also, if Judgement has meteors going towards the opponent, why do they start at the pokemon, and _fly away?_


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## Mustardear (Jun 19, 2010)

Brock said:


> Also, if Judgement has meteors going towards the opponent, why do they start at the pokemon, and _fly away?_


My explanation: It's too epic for mortals to comprehend.
Also, the game spells it 'Judgment'.


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## Wargle (Jun 22, 2010)

Because in Soviet Russia YOU hit the Meteors. And Pokemon Games are Soviet. Or not.

They do?


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## Dannichu (Jun 26, 2010)

GEN II GHOST-CURSE.

I'm not sure whether to put this as "like" or "dislike" because it scares the hell out of me. The Pokemon DRIVES A NAIL INTO ITS OWN HEAD AAAAAHHH.

Also, Perish Song. I forget which Gen (maybe all, who knows?), but there's a sweet tune and the floaty musical notes, and then it JARS and the battle scene goes dark and the music notes all TWIST and drop to the ground and it is the sound of IMMINENT DEATH.

Those are the most memorable ones for me because they're creepy as all hell.


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## Arylett Charnoa (Jun 26, 2010)

I like:
Pokemon Stadium 2's Psybeam/Psychic (The noise Psybeam makes... is so satisfying for some reason)
Pokemon Stadium 2's Hyper Beam (Same as Psybeam)
Pokemon Stadium 2's Earthquake
Pokemon Stadium 2's Thunder.
Pokemon Stadium 2's Dragonbreath. (Always thought of it as blueish green.)

And actually, most of Pokemon Stadium 2's attack animations. They're what I think of what I think of an attack.

For main series games:
Gen II's Ice/Thunder/Fire Punch.
Gen III's Absorb (I LOVE the noise it makes. Love love love it.)
Gen II's Fly.
Gen IV's Aura Sphere
Agreed with the person who said that most Fire attacks in Gen IV are awesome.
Gen II's Flame Wheel/Sacred Fire.
Gen III's Overheat
Gen II's Crunch (The screen goes all BLACK and it's just WHOA THAT'S GOTTA HURT like they really crunched through your Pokemon.)
Water Pulse. All Generations.
Dragon Claw. All Generations.
Shadow Ball. All Generations.

Dislike:
Gen III's Razor Leaf, I just don't.
Gen IV's Quick Attack/Extremespeed (I think Gen II's version of both was much better. It's just... rotating like one person said.)
Gen IV's Fly. (What's the deal with the big blue bouncing sphere going up? That makes NO sense to me.)
Cut, All Generations. (It just looks so... boring.)
Gen II, III, IV's Dragonbreath. (In the first ones, it looks like a Fire attack, not a Dragon one. In the second... it's PINK WHAT IS THIS? I always thought Dragonbreath was blueish green!)
Gen III's Psychic (The noise it made annoyed me.)
Gen III's Thunderbolt/Thunder Wave (Just... weren't satisfying for me. Thunderbolt looked kinda lame and so did Thunder Wave)
Gen IV's Strength (The Pokemon shrinks and grows in an annoying way and doesn't even throw a bolder or anything. Why?)

And yeah, that's all I can think of.


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## Darksong (Jun 30, 2010)

One that made it onto my all-time favorites was Gen III Leaf Blade -- totally awesome to me. I was disappointed how they made it an actual sword in Gen IV. Another is Ice Beam, both Gen III and IV. The former has a really icy and powerful feel to it, but the latter has an air of freezing cold and concentration, which I think would hurt the Pokemon more than the actual beam. Another I really like is Gen III Ice Ball; I haven't seen the Gen IV animation, though, so I can't say that I like that one yet. 

Some I dislike are the above-mentioned Gen IV Leaf Blade, Submission (I don't get it), and Gunk Shot, which is a physical move but looks special. Grass Knot is misleading in the same way; according to Veekun, it's in the Special class but makes contact...


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## shadow_lugia (Jun 30, 2010)

I also really loved the Gen. III Leaf Blade. This was probably helped by how Ruby was my first game, and Treecko was my starter.

After he learned Leaf Blade, I used it in battle soon. After I saw what it looked like, my reaction was something along the lines of, "Holy crap, that was EPIC."


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## Ymedron (Jul 2, 2010)

Gen 3:s mud shot is pretty ugly. Just a line of brown circles. <_<' Pah.


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## Espeon (Jul 2, 2010)

I really liked Gen IV's Water Gun. It might not be my absolute favourite but, it's the only one I can think from the top of my head I really liked. I also liked Gen I's Night Shade attack.

I wasn't really a fan of any restoration moves in Gen III.


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## ProgMetal_64 (Jul 2, 2010)

Spacial Rend is pretty neat (don't ask, I just like it), and so is Gen II Tri Attack. I also have to mention Gen I Ice Beam, the only Ice Beam animation that did justice for the attack itself.

My least favorite?  Ice Beam from both Gen III and IV. Neither animation fits the power of the attack.


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## wyoming789 (Jul 3, 2010)

I really hate Red/Blue's Water Gun.  Its just three blobs lazily floating over, barely touching the opponent.


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## Equinoxe (Jul 3, 2010)

I really like Platinum's Spacial Rend animation, the black fits it better than the full pink in DP.

I don't really like fourth gen's Psychic animation, it's a bit too bland in my opinion. Extrasensory is more interesting even though power-wise it should be more boring.



GSC's Screech was awful, not animation- but _sound_-wise. It really was earsplitting so I guess it fits the idea. 
I had it ringing in my ears for quite a while when I happened to use the move with the volume cranked up.


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## Missile (Jul 7, 2010)

*Dislike:*
The move Bubble from any Generation. It's just a bunch of delicate bubbles floating over to the opponent and popping. o.O _Float...float...float...POP!_ I actually found it funny.
R/S/E's Hyper Beam. The _heck_ is that? DNA?
etc.
*Like:*
G/S/C's Hyper Beam. Now THAT'S what I call I Hyper Beam!
D/P/Pt/Hg/Ss's Ice Beam. So pwetty...
R/S/E's Attract. I always loved that one the most.
D/P/Pt/Hg/Ss's Surf. Dunno why.
D/P/Pt/Hg/Ss's Thunder. I just loooooove it so much!
Draco Meteor from any Generation it was in. I just love it so~
R/B/G/Y's Thundershock. I loved that flashing black circle. :D

That's all for now.


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## Cinders (Jul 8, 2010)

Well, you know how Platinum's Skuntank sprite has that horrible peeing dog pose?

Whenever an opponent uses it and chooses flamethrower, it looks like it's shooting fire out of it's... Yup. Great planning on GameFreak's part.


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## Mustardear (Jul 9, 2010)

Cinders said:


> Whenever an opponent uses it and chooses flamethrower, it looks like it's shooting fire out of it's... Yup. Great planning on GameFreak's part.


I swear they do this deliberately sometimes...


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## Cinders (Jul 9, 2010)

Mustardear said:


> I swear they do this deliberately sometimes...


I'm pretty sure the game developers have a great time coming with things they don't think ten year olds will catch.


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## alex185 (Jul 9, 2010)

I like the platinum spacial rend and perish song
Hate: confusion (gen iv) its boring wheras in gen III it had a cool background


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## Enkoe (Jul 10, 2010)

LIKE:
Bubble. Self-explanatory (did I spell that right? :3)
Sing. The tune. The tune. It sounds so SWEET. :3

DISLIKE:
Fire Blast (GEN IV). First part - Flame Wheel? The "blast" part looks far too weak to do so much damage... a critical hit took out Whitney's Miltank. ONE HIT. WHITNEY'S MILTANK. *faint*

The Thunder moves (GEN IV). All too similar. Which one is Thunderwave again? No, that was Thundershock! Gah!

Growl (GEN IV). What the...? Since when did Chikorita emit SONIC SOUND WAVES?

Leer (GEN IV). I don't see. Leering is some sort of evil look. What is with the LIGHT? That white SPARK THING?

Foresight (GEN IV). What the. When did Hoothoot obtain a Magnifying Glass?

Water Gun (GEN IV). That... does not look like a Gun...

Curse (Ghost) (GEN IV). OMG GHASTLY KILLED ITSELF!!!! YAY!!! But then it killed my Pokemon... D: Does not look like an actual Curse.

Aura Sphere (D/P/PT). What. That looks like AURA BEAM if you ask me.

Swagger (D/P/PT). The Pokemon... inflates itself...?

String Shot (R/S/E). What. Flying dots? That is not a string, those are dots. DOTS.


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## shadow_lugia (Jul 10, 2010)

Enkoe said:


> Swagger (D/P/PT). The Pokemon... inflates itself...?


Maybe it inflates its ego?


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## Arylett Charnoa (Jul 10, 2010)

Oh, I have a few more to add that I dislike. I just used them now:

Gen IV's SolarBeam. It... comes out of the sky rather than from the Pokemon. So is the Pokemon summoning Thor to deliver a SolarBeam from the sky? I always imagined the Pokemon gathering energy and then blasting the attack from itself. Not... from Thor apparently.

Gen IV's Crunch. Why is it crunching... rocks? It really loses that brutal feeling that Gen II had. I don't know about Gen III's, haven't seen it.

And some liked ones:

Gen IV's Spark. Excellent. I love the way the screen flashes and then that tackle nose it makes. It makes the move feel like it should be more powerful than it really is.

Gen IV's Flare Blitz/Brave Bird. Only Generation it's appeared in thus far, but really does it justice. It has this brutal WHOA feeling, the way the Pokemon tackles the opponent. Same with Brave Bird. I like the little red flashy things that go towards the foe.

Also @Enkoe: Aura Beam so needs to be an attack.


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## Mustardear (Jul 10, 2010)

alex185 said:


> Hate: confusion (gen iv) its boring wheras in gen III it had a cool background


I agree - Gen III had some cool backgrounds for most attacks and Gen IV just seemed to take them away. I always thought that the backgrounds made the attacks look more supernatural, showing that it was Pokemon fighting, not just mere animals.


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## SoulFloatzel_Umbreon (Jul 12, 2010)

I liked gen IV extrasensory, cosmic power, wish, and magical leaf
i don't like the animation of ingrain in gen IV water gun in gen III and thunder in gen III


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## Dannichu (Jul 12, 2010)

Enkoe said:


> DISLIKE:
> Leer (GEN IV). I don't see. Leering is some sort of evil look. What is with the LIGHT? That white SPARK THING?
> 
> Swagger (D/P/PT). The Pokemon... inflates itself...?


For these, I think it's meant to be an eye-glint as a leer, as so often happens in anime. The eye being the thing that glints doesn't always work, though, given how where the eye of the Pokemon is varies massively from sprite to sprite. 

And I always thought of the inflating to be like the Pokemon puffing themselves up to make themselves look more impressive. I really liked it, actually, though the opposing Pokemon getting really angry didn't make a lot of sense.



Arylett Dawnsborough said:


> Gen IV's Crunch. Why is it crunching... rocks? It really loses that brutal feeling that Gen II had. I don't know about Gen III's, haven't seen it.


Agreein' with this. Crunch was so _scary_ in GSC - Karen's Houndoom was pretty much the only thing that ever had it, and it'd just go MASH MASH MASH and you knew you were going to die horribly. Good times.


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## wyoming789 (Jul 13, 2010)

Cosmic Power is so kool.  Also, thunder/thunderwave/thundershock from red/blue.  Its a ball, the same ball, for all of them.  I just dont see it.


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## Lili (Jul 13, 2010)

I dislike Tackle and Headbutt in any one of the games. It's just a jump forward, and the opponet jumps back.


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## 1. Luftballon (Jul 13, 2010)

...what do you expect a tackle or headbutt to look like?


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## Anomaly 54 (Jul 13, 2010)

A tackle, not a "tilt forward and they take damage"


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## Mustardear (Jul 13, 2010)

Pichu Chris said:


> A tackle, not a "tilt forward and they take damage"


Unfortunately, making an animation of each and every sprite running towards the opponent and tackling them to the ground would require large amounts of disk space and time, and this would have to be done for every contact move, twice for every Pokemon (one for your Pokemon and one for the opponent's). And even then it would look sloppy.


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## Tyranitar freak (Jul 13, 2010)

Favorites:
Gen IV Extremespeed. Kinda makes it look like they just go so fast they dissapear, then reappear and wipe out the opposing pokemon.
HG/SS Hyper beam. I like the whitish light in the background as the blast is fired.
Any Gen IV flame based attacks. Epicness.

Hated:
Gen III hyper beam. Always looks like they're firing skittles
Gen IV Crunch. Where'd the rocks come from?
Gen IV Ice beam. As strong as it is, it should do more damage.


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## shadow_lugia (Jul 14, 2010)

I preferred the Gen. III Extremespeed because it seemed so much faster. The three little attack things in Gen. IV are so _slow._ In Gen. III it was like "Whe whe whe pew pew pew wawawawawawawaa." In Gen. IV it was like "Whe whe whe. Pew. Pew. Pew. Wawawawawawawaa."


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## Cinders (Jul 16, 2010)

Doubleslap is one of the worst. Because it's a move that usually hits twice, and the animation shows a hand slapping twice for each hit.

Quadruple slap?


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## 1. Luftballon (Jul 17, 2010)

...it hits up to five times.


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## Vipera Magnifica (Jul 17, 2010)

Cinders said:


> I'm pretty sure the game developers have a great time coming with things they don't think ten year olds will catch.


Like hyper beam on a dragonite?


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## Mustardear (Jul 18, 2010)

Zangviper said:


> Like hyper beam on a dragonite?


Yep, and Megahorn on DPPt Heracross.


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